Bob Mackin
When self-described Bitcoin “evangelist” Ken Sim wasn’t attending city council meetings in January, the Mayor of Vancouver was spending the public’s time promoting cryptocurrency.
Sim’s calendar for the first month of 2025 shows that no other topic captured his attention like crypto did.
Mayor Ken Sim and Minister Brenda Bailey at SXSW 2023 (Frontier Collective)
Not housing. Not public safety. Not affordability.
Sim’s schedule through Jan. 13 consisted of two meetings between the mayor’s office and city manager’s office, a search committee meeting and dinner with India’s consul general.
Then crypto became the dominant theme of his calendar, with meetings and interviews across the industry. He appeared on two podcasts, one 37 minutes long, the other 56 minutes (watch highlights above).
- Jan. 14: Cong Ly, chief technology officer of WonderFI, a Toronto-based, TSX-listed company that owns Bitbuy, Coinsquare, Smartpay and Bitcoin.ca.
- Jan. 16: Cole (who goes by one name on the company website) from Coinos Corp., a payment processing company.
- Jan. 20: Bitcoin meetup at Killer Ice Cream; Bitcoin discovery and planning lunch.
- Jan. 21: Interview on Canadian Bitcoiners Podcast.
- Jan. 23: Interview on Bitcoin Layer Podcast.
- Jan. 24: Rodolfo Novak, CEO/co-founder CoinKite; George Bordianu, co-founder CEO, Balance “Canada’s oldest and largest digital asset custodian”
Sim ended the month with a trip to El Salvador, the first country to make Bitcoin a legal tender.
Sim’s majority ABC city council voted Dec. 11 to study accepting Bitcoin for property tax payments and to invest some of the city’s financial reserves in Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and currency fluctuations.
Sim’s 2025 statement of disclosure says that he holds an undisclosed amount of shares in Coinbase Global Inc., Agora Dealer Services Holdings Corp. and IBIT iShares Bitcoin Trust.
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